Everyone bangs on about compressionless housings for brake cables, but what about the inner cables?

I’ve just switched my road shifters over, I used the brake cable outers as I already had (as I think they are compressionless thoguh the marking has worn off). The supplied rear cable was too short so I bought a jagwire one and it is working fine. The one at the front is the shimno SLR one that came with the shifters. It seems ridiculously spongy and lever pull required increases with multiple pulls. Online it seems inner cables are inner cables, but I can’t see whatelse the issue is as I’m using the old housing I had no issues with in the past.

Perhaps the end fittings aren’t on well?

The only difference I’ve ever noticed is rust resistance. High quality stainless cables are actually a bit of a marvel, technically.

XTR FTW.

Less of a difference than outers, but coated inners do make a difference. It’d being put under quite a lot of tension round bends so anything to reduce friction is good.

You can identify compressionless outers as they look like gear outers with lots of thin strands rather than a big spiral.

If it’s bad. I’d guess you’ve threaded it incorrectly under the bar tape/into the back of the bifter.

I always use stainless inners, bought cheaply in bulk from EBay. Always use standard Shimano outer but taking time to prep the outer correctly makes a massive difference. I always square off the end after cutting, with an angle grinder. Regardless which cutters you use it always crushes the ends in, creating drag on the cable. Then open out the inner sleeve with a drill bit. Use only metal ferrules & give the inner a blast through with a teflon based oil from an aerosol with straw.
The difference it makes, especially to a child’s bike, is enormous. Once a year I’ll draw the inner out, blast some oil in & re-fit. Replacing inners is much easier afterwards as there’s nothing to snag & frat the cable.

When I was doing my road bike build a while back I got some Dura Ace/Ultegra (?) Shimano coated inner cables – only because they were on offer at the time – and the 105 brakes they are on have been very good from set-up and have stayed that way with no noticeable deterioration. I’ve had compliments on how good the brakes are from both my LBS and a pal with Ultegra brakes on his far better bike, so yes, in my experience, better quality inners – along with careful outer cable prep, obviously – makes a big difference, and I will definitely pay the extra again.

Regardless which cutters you use it always crushes the ends in

True that. My (Birzman) cutters have a handy little bradawl incorporated in the side of the tool, recessed into a round socket so you press the cut cable-end in and open it back out.

Back to the ‘are all cables equal’ – I hope not as last week I paid LBS £40 for what I thought was a full set each of Avid (brake) and Shimano (gear) inner and outers, yet still had to reuse an old brake cable as the Avid set only had one long outer and that wouldn’t run the full length of both brakes. Guess it was intended to be cut for interrupted runs with cable-stops, which my frame (Mk1 Longitude) doesnt have.

Anyway, forty quids for 3/4 of the job. Am I getting too old for this game? How can a pint be £4? Etc… 🤣

I do think Shimano steel cables seem to run slightly smoother/more friction-free than various Teflon-coated ones* although both work well IME. The possible trade-off is the Teflon ones seem to go on longer with that ‘fresh’ feel without the need to replace.

*Have used Avid Flak Jackets and Clarkes Premium in the past

https://fibrax.org/faq-technology.html

Die Drawn Slick

+1 for die drawn slick/polished stainless inners. I was impressed with lifeline compressionless outers too.

What is this thing ‘brake cable’?